Gestion En La Reparacion De Equipo

Fixed Equipment Reliability Assuring Excellence
Part 2 of 2
By F. Walter Pinto, Manager, Stationary Equipment, Lyondell Chemical Company

This series of articles describes the elements for a successful fixed equipment reliability program in a petrochemical facility. These articles will address management systems, engineering practices, preventive/predictive maintenance/inspection systems,performance metrics and resources. The fixed equipment reliability program at Lyondell Chemical Company and a number of best practices developed as part of the reliability program will serve as much of the basis. Some success stories and lessons learned are shared. A model fixed equipment reliability program shown in Attachment 1.0 can be used to evaluate the reliability program at any site. A listof abbreviations used in this paper is provided in Attachment 8.0

Visualize this:

A plant engineer is driving to work in the morning. He sees the emergency flare light up and says to himself, “There it goes again! Have we had another major leak due to Corrosion-under-Insulation (CUI)?” Later, he finds that it was indeed a leak due to CUI, with an associated cost in excess of two milliondollars in lost opportunity and hydrocarbons flared. I am sure all of us have experienced repeated equipment failures and said to ourselves, “Why don’t we learn from these Editor Note: This article incidents and prevent them from occurring again?” Some companies do and some don’t. The only way unplanned equipment failures can be avoided is by sustaining a “reliability culture” and not by a appears asPart 1 and Part 2. The attachments and references “bandage approach,” with little, if any, collective learning. While this article focuses on fixed equipment, the principles can be applied to other disciplines. Science and the tools in this area are well known and available. The challenge always is in implementation because it requires resources and in sustaining “the change.” A reliability culturecan only exist if it has “reliability lobbyists” to make a constant case, keeping the improved attitudes and actions in front of the decision makers. Reliability at Lyondell is defined as “the availability of operating units on demand.” The focus is on “excellence,” not “compliance.” The reliability program covers all equipment, not just “process safety management (PSM) covered” equipment. Webelieve that reliability drives excellence in safety, cost, quality and environmental performance. Our experience shows that an effective reliability program must have all of these considerations factored into the equation. The most reliable plants have the lowest maintenance cost and excellent safety performance. Attachment 2.0 illustrates this experience within Lyondell. The first graph shows therelationship between reliability and safety performance at a site.The second graph shows the relationship between reliability and maintenance cost performance at another site. Reliability is a competitive advantage. Fixed equipment includes equipment types such as pressure vessels, heat exchangers, piping, storage tanks, valves, pressure relieving devices, boilers, furnaces/heaters and structures.In a typical refinery or petrochemical facility, a significant portion (generally more than 50%) of the capital/maintenance cost and reliability events or failures are associated with stationary/fixed equipment. The risks from fixed equipment are highest compared to other equipment types because of the sheer number of equipment pieces and quantity of stored fluid.A significant percentage ofindustry incidents that have resulted in injuries or asset loss also have been associated with fixed equipment7. Fixed equipment is often subjected to extreme operating conditions and varying damage mechanisms. In most cases, the damage is not immediate and damage rates are not linear. A good example is CUI damage. How many times have you seen insulation cut open during maintenance or a turnaround and...